Derek Bok

Doctoral training is devoted almost entirely to learning to do research, even though most Ph.Ds who enter academic life spend far more…

— Derek Bok

I think it's sort of an outrage that companies should have to hire firms to teach the college graduates they employ how…

— Derek Bok

As countries embrace mass higher education, the cost of maintaining universities increases dramatically relative to an elite system.

— Derek Bok

“surveys show that over 90 percent of professors believe that their teaching is above average,”

— Derek Bok

For some students, especially in the sciences, the knowledge gained in college may be directly relevant to graduate study. For almost all…

— Derek Bok

There is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot.

— Derek Bok

An educated man must have a "curiosity in exploring the unfamiliar and unexpected, an open-mindedness in entertaining opposing points of view, tolerance…

— Derek Bok

Once you start worrying about a national football championship, then you begin to worry about getting the quality of athlete, and the…

— Derek Bok

I think any self-respecting educational institution ought to judge its policies by its best estimate of what their long-term consequences for their…

— Derek Bok

I think the minority students that we admit to Harvard are every bit as meritorious as the white students that we admit.

— Derek Bok

There's a great deal of difference between thinking reflectively about moral issues and achieving higher standards of ethical behavior.

— Derek Bok

Critics of American colleges typically attribute the failings of undergraduate education to a tendency on the part of professors to neglect their…

— Derek Bok

Early admission programs tend to advantage the advantaged.

— Derek Bok

Universities are institutions run by amateurs to train professionals.

— Derek Bok

The oldest of the arts and the youngest of the professions.

— Derek Bok

I suspect that no community will become humane and caring by restricting what its members can say.

— Derek Bok

Again and again, universities have put a low priority on the very programs and initiatives that are needed most to increase productivity…

— Derek Bok

Freshly minted Ph.Ds typically teach the way their favorite professors taught.

— Derek Bok

Education, and I regret to say this as an educator, but there's no indication that education has a direct effect on happiness.

— Derek Bok

What college is all about is some kind of 4-year game about who is going to end up with the highest grades.…

— Derek Bok

“For the first time in living memory, current generations of young people today are likely to be no better educated than their…

— Derek Bok

If we are prepared to invest the necessary time and effort, affirmative action can contribute to Harvard's quality and not detract from…

— Derek Bok

Universities are in a position where they can think very creatively.

— Derek Bok

I won't say there aren't any Harvard graduates who have never asserted a superior attitude. But they have done so to our…

— Derek Bok

The vast majority of students probably emerge from college with an adequate grasp of no more than a single method of inquiry.…

— Derek Bok